Attention All drivers:Now it’s ‘Click It or Ticket’
By The Emporia Gazette (Contact)
Originally published 02:00 p.m., May 23, 2008
Updated 02:00 p.m., May 23, 2008
It’s “Click It or Ticket.” Drivers in Kansas must wear their seat belts or face traffic fines.
Deputy Police Chief Michael Lopez released a statement that warns drivers in Emporia of heightened traffic enforcement during the next two weeks.
“Additional off-duty officers with the Emporia Police Department will be placed on the city’s roadways to aggressively enforce Kansas traffic laws, especially targeting seat belt and child restraint violations,” Lopez said.
The program is supported by a grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation. The Click It or Ticket program runs through June 1.
The Emporia Police Department will be among 130 law enforcement agencies statewide that are participating in the program.
According to the Kansas Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Traffic Safety, traffic crashes claimed the lives of more than 460 people in 2007. Seventy percent of those people were not wearing their seat belts. Only 61 percent of children ages birth to 13 are properly restrained when riding in cars.
“The Emporia Police Department is making a clear statement that it is committed to aggressively ticketing violators of Kansas passenger restraint laws, and all traffic infractions that make our roadways unsafe,” Lopez said. “We will be providing stepped up enforcement and random patrolling during the Click it or Ticket campaign.”